The present invention relates to the clearing of land mines in general, and more particularly to a novel apparatus for clearing land mines.
The clearing of mine fields, or at least of paths through mine fields, has gained ever increasing importance since World War I when land mines were first employed to a significant extent. The need to do so assumed even greater dimensions during World War II when mine fields were widely employed to blunt the thrust of attacking armoured spearheads, as in the battle of the Kursk salient. At that time, clearing of land mines was still largely a matter for sapper units where each individual sought out and deactivated mines one-by-one until a path had been opened through a mine field.
Subsequently, and to a large extent influenced by the development of specific anti-tank mines which are capable of being "seeded" from aircraft across the axis of attack of an armoured thrust, various proposals have been made for facilitating the clearing of mines on a more expeditious basis than previously.
One proposal suggests the use of pyrotechnical devices which are distributed over the area to be cleared and are exploded in order to detonate any mines that are located in this area. However, the distribution of the explosive devices in the area to be cleared is very time consuming and difficult and requires immensely complicated efforts, especially if it must be carried out in the face of hostile fire.
Another approach utilizes mechanical means for clearing, that is rollers, plows, flailing chains or the like, which are moved over the area to be cleared in order to either detonate any mines that are present or to dislodge them and throw them laterally out of the area. All of these devices must of course be propelled over the area to be cleared and in order to be able to withstand a series of mine explosions they must be constructed extremely sturdily. This means that they are expensive to produce and difficult to move about. On the other hand, if they are of light-weight construction they are likely to be destroyed by a single mine explosion, which means that a very large number of such devices must be available at all times, which is not only again a problem in terms of expenditure but may also be difficult to assure under combat conditions.
Where explosive means are used, the amount of explosives required to clear an area, such as a path through a mine field, is directly dependent upon the size of the area to be cleared. As a general rule it has been found that at least 0.5-1 kg explosive per square meter to be cleared, must be available. Moreover, the speed at which an area can be cleared with pyrotechnical or explosive devices depends upon the manner in which the devices can be distributed over the area to be cleared, whereas in the case of mechanical devices it depends upon the time required to repair damage that may have been caused to the equipment by a preceding mine explosion, or the time required to replace a damaged device with a new one. It has been found that the average time required is approximately 1 second per each 10 centimeters (i.e. running centimeters) of area to be cleared. It is evident that when clearing must be effected of mine fields having a depth of perhaps hundreds or even thousands of meters, and in the face of hostile fire, this is a very unsatisfactory approach.
It is of course also known to clear mines in the conventional World War II way, by detecting them with the aid of detecting devices which respond to the presence of metal, geometric forms, local irregularities or the like, and thereupon to render the detected mine ineffective. The speed of clearing is even lower with this approach.
Moreover, aside from the clearing difficulties which are experienced in any case, mine fields are now usually provided with anti-clearing counter measures. For example, it is known to provide metallic parts which are strewn about the mined area to simulate the presence of mines and make the clearing operation more difficult for personnel using mine detectors. It is also known to provide pressure detonators which do not respond to the explosion of mine-clearing pyrotechnical devices, or to provide detonators having a pneumatic-delay or multiple-pulse detonators. It is known to provide booby traps directed against mine clearing personnel, or to provide explosive charges which are to destroy mine clearing equipment and/or the carrier vehicle for the same.